Still need another reason to attend? The final project of WordCamp Louisville will feature NowSourcing’s own Brian Wallace in a one-hour, interactive presentation on putting a WordPress site together from start to finish. But not just any site. The final project will also focus on generating traffic and getting indexed in search engines and noticed in social media.

You can register and get your ticket here, and doing so will give you a shot at a prize that includes:

- $100 iTunes giftcard
- 1 hour social media consultation from NowSourcing
- 1 hour SEO consultation from Southern Indiana Webworks

WordCamp is intended for all experience levels, so there’s no excuse. It’s taking place this Saturday at the Shelby Campus of the University of Louisville. Hope to see you there.

Welcome to the final installment of the 10in10 experiment! Week 10 I had a chance to catch up with John Stammerman aka JStam, currently a web administrator for Indiana University.  Right away I could tell that John really gets the web, both as a designer and a programmer.   It was interesting to see his views on social media, as he has been an early adopter and a ‘behind the scenes’ man for some time now. We chatted about usability, spending time looking at Prezi.com.  It was great meeting up with John and hearing about his transition from agency work to University work as well.

John had a fresh perspective on social media, one coming from a social media user, rather than marketer point of view.

We have a winner!

And we have a winner, folks! Congratulations to Kevin Mason, who drove the furthest to meet for the 10in10 experiment – Kevin has won an iPod Nano, courtesy of Geeks.com!

I had a lot of fun with the 10in10 experiment and hope you found it to be an enjoyable read.  Let’s not let it stop here.  We’re going to try to get the 10in10 crew together and see how it helped them grow in social media.

Previous 10 in 10 posts:

• Week 9: Meeting Ben Ray
• Week 8: Meeting My Neighbor?
• Week 7: Meeting Louisville Soup
• Week 6: Meeting Erin McMahon aka Firestar9s
• Week 5: Meeting Scott Hack
• Week 4:Week 4 – Todd Mundt from NPR
• Week 3: meeting with Jaime Mack
• iPod Nano / Geeks.com sponsor announcement
• Week 2: meeting with Kevin Mason
• Week 1: meeting with David Finch
• Taking it to the Streets: Initial post

Funny the way things work out sometimes…we’ve lived in our new home almost 2 years now, and really haven’t spoken much to our neighbor.  Big disaster type storms have a way of connecting people, and that’s just what this storm did.  I spoke to my neighbor about letting me on to his secure wifi, and sure enough he had no problem with this! Saved me quite a few trips to the local coffee shop and allowed me to work uninterrupted.  Sometimes it’s great to just step away from the computer (even when forced in this case ), out of the echo chamber, and connect with real live people…even when they aren’t into social media (yet anyways mwhahaha).

2 to go until the big iPod winner (sponsored by Geeks.com) going to the person that drives the furthest to meet up, currently Kevin Mason from Nashville.

Previous 10 in 10 posts:

• Week 7: Meeting Louisville Soup
• Week 6: Meeting Erin McMahon aka Firestar9s
• Week 5: Meeting Scott Hack
• Week 4:Week 4 – Todd Mundt from NPR
• Week 3: meeting with Jaime Mack
• iPod Nano / Geeks.com sponsor announcement
• Week 2: meeting with Kevin Mason
• Week 1: meeting with David Finch
• Taking it to the Streets: Initial post

Related articles:

• Crippling Ice Storm Sweeps Heartland (cbsnews.com)
• chilly on TwitPic (tsurch.com)
• 250K still without power in icy Kentucky (cnn.com)

We have 3 to go in the 10in10 series, and I thought that it would be fun to meet the final 3 all at once, at one of the more popular meetups in Louisville – none other than the Louisvlle Geek Dinner. This will be our second dinner we’ll be in attendance and after last year’s, I highly recommend it.

So as a special treat, we’ll be meeting the final 3 of 10 in 10, and announcing the winner – iPod (sponsored by Geeks.com)goes to the person that drives the furthest to meet up, currently Kevin Mason from Nashville.  Hope to see you there!

Previous 10 in 10 posts:

• Week 7: Meeting Louisville Soup
• Week 6: Meeting Erin McMahon aka Firestar9s
• Week 5: Meeting Scott Hack
• Week 4:Week 4 – Todd Mundt from NPR
• Week 3: meeting with Jaime Mack
• iPod Nano / Geeks.com sponsor announcement
• Week 2: meeting with Kevin Mason
• Week 1: meeting with David Finch
• Taking it to the Streets: Initial post

It’s really a lot of fun meeting someone for the first time in person after only speaking with them online.  Such was the case in meeting Mike Campbell aka Louisvillesoup on Twitter.

We had a chance to meet over coffee at one of my more favorite places in town.  If you’re in Louisville, you’ve probably been to the Starbucks on Hurstbourne.  What’s really special about this location is that it was previously a bank.  So, the bank vault is now a meeting room! Coolest war room around to plan your next heist

but I digress….

Back to Mike.  Mike’s a really sharp guy.  CPA turned social media ninja, Mike had been in attendence to one of my speaking events several months ago.  And he credits me for getting him hooked on Twitter.  So I suppose that I owe an apology to Mike’s friends and family for this addiction, though he assures me that he’s received significant value and productivity from the great microblogging platform we all know and love.

We spoke about the benefits and drawbacks of social media in the workplace, and how some social media tools (blogs, intranets, wikis) can be great for productivity and collaboration.  I look forward to speaking with Mike and the rest of you out there soon!

Remember, you can win an iPod Nano by traveling the furthest to meet me, sponsored by Geeks.com.

Previous 10 in 10 posts:

• Week 6 – Meeting Erin McMahon aka Firestar9s
• Week 5: Meeting Scott Hack
• Week 4:Week 4 – Todd Mundt from NPR
• Week 3: meeting with Jaime Mack
• iPod Nano / Geeks.com sponsor announcement
• Week 2: meeting with Kevin Mason
• Week 1: meeting with David Finch
• Taking it to the Streets: Initial post

Believe it or not, Erin McMahon aka Firestar9s is the first woman to be featured in the #10in10 experiment.  Erin currently works for the Metro United Way of Louisville.  It was a lot of fun speaking with Erin, and hearing about social media activities through the point of view of a non-profit.  Erin definitely has a can-do attitude, and is eager to learn social media.  Metro United Way is already on the way into the world of social media, as can be seen from the Flickr, Facebook, and YouTube links off the homepage.  I first spotted Erin off Twitter, and is one to watch.

Erin asked a lot of specific questions about blogging and her natural curiosity shows a high aptitude for a road to success in social media. It was a pleasure meeting with her, and look forward to speaking with her in the future.

Come on, y’all – don’t be shy.  Wouldn’t you like to win an iPod Nano? Come from the furthest to meet me, and Geeks.com will send one to your door.  You might even get a coffee out of the deal

Previous 10 in 10 posts:

• Week 5: Meeting Scott Hack
• Week 4:Week 4 – Todd Mundt from NPR
• Week 3: meeting with Jaime Mack
• iPod Nano / Geeks.com sponsor announcement
• Week 2: meeting with Kevin Mason
• Week 1: meeting with David Finch
• Taking it to the Streets: Initial post

Sharing a wealth of knowledge, a consensus mentality and a love for my newly adopted hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, I felt great about my most recent 10 in 10 meet-up experience with Todd Mundt of National Public Radio. And it isn’t your grandparents’ radio station, either. Well, it could be if your grandparents are like mine and are way cool, hip and totally into technology and electronics and ambiance. I took the grand tour with Todd who enjoys his home field advantage at the corporate NPR facilities here in Louisville. The lay of the land is professional, quality-driven and well dressed.

I’ve seen Todd around mainly on Twitter but also local Louisville websites. Like myself, Todd is also a Louisville transplant. Originally from Iowa, Todd has been in Louisville for years now, and comes from a background in radio. This was a natural fit to the microblogging environment that is Twitter. He is personable, friendly and authoritative in his area of expertise and I couldn’t have appreciated him more.

Todd and I caught up over a cup of coffee and wow did we hit a lot of territory.  Everything from Twitter to Identica to Yammer and back again.  A great conversation we had going was the concept of blog comment ownership.  We went back and forth between a third party model (a la disqus), the blog owner retaining control, and original commenter control.

I had a great time meeting up with Todd, and would like to do so again.  Can’t wait for my next 10 in 10 meetup, won’t you join me?

And hey kids, while Kevin Mason is still in the leader in the Geeks.com 10in10 contest, though it isn’t too late for you to try to win the iPod Nano!

Previous 10 in 10 posts:

• Week 3: meeting with Jaime Mack
• iPod Nano / Geeks.com sponsor announcement
• Week 2: meeting with Kevin Mason
• Week 1: meeting with David Finch
• Taking it to the Streets: Initial post

Week two of the #10in10 experiment was a success. This week’s focus was Kevin Mason, who graciously drove all the way from Nashville, Tennessee!

Kevin runs a music marketing company by the name of Intensity Media.

It’s always fun to learn things about people that you just don’t get from a social networking profile. I soon learned that Kevin has already done a lifetime of experience in radio (and has the radio voice to prove it!), and I was quickly suggesting that he starts up a regular video blog, as I think people would find him interesting to listen to.

Having never heard Kevin’s voice before, I had figured a guy from Nashville would have a pretty heavy southern accent. Turned out that he had been from other points north and east, so that wasn’t the case! I’ve seen Kevin on Plurk and Twitter, but meeting him face-to-face showed me another dimension of who he was and what he was about. You can’t get a full view of a person from a few tweets and links.

Week 3 of 10 in 10 is up for grabs – if anyone is interested, please let me know!

Well, off we go on our first week of the 10 in 10 experiment. In case you missed it, I’m on a mission to meet 10 folks that I’ve never met in real life before over the next 10 weeks. I’ll start making a hashtag in Twitter for this as well for future easy tracking: #10in10.

I think that 10 in 10 provides an interesting alternative that other in person networking events and online social media interactions do not necessarily cover:

• Introverts are more comfortable with a one-on-one setting: less pressure, easier to open up
• Networking events might not allow you enough quality time with an individual
• Networking events may have some cliques already, and if you’re not a part of them, that sucks
• You often will gravitate towards people you already know, so you miss out on meeting new people
• Social media is a great way to connect, but you don’t necessarily know who you are dealing with
• There is more to meeting people than a handshake and a business card

So this week I had the pleasure of meeting David Finch, Producer at Vupal Network LLC.

I learned some good things about David and what he does for a living. I knew that he blogged on his site, but I didn’t know much about his main gig over at Vupal. And by the look of things, they are producing some awesome content that is all about food. Dear readers, I suggest you check out some of their sites:

• foodvu.com
• groceryschool.com
• therookiecookshow.com

It was also cool to hear that David is fairly new to Louisville as well. We’ve been here for about a year and a half now, so it’s always good to hear how other people wind up here as well

I knew of David before, but now I’ve been able to spend some quality time with him. I’m sure we’ll see each other again, and perhaps we’ll be able to help each other out in each other’s efforts as well. So as you can see, we’re really off to a great start! Looking forward to our next 10 in 10 this coming Tuesday where I’ll be meeting a Mr. Kevin Mason who is graciously driving all the way from Nashville!

Which brings me to another point…toying with the idea of giving a small prize to the person that travels the farthest – anyone want to get in on that action?

Goal: To meet 10 people that are involved in social media that I’ve never met IRL, and sit down and have an IRL conversation with them over the next 10 weeks.  Look people, social media isn’t just Twittering and Digging.  It’s about the conversation, right? So, let’s converse!

If you’re in the Louisville area, let’s grab a cup of coffee and discuss what’s important to you. The only rules:

• You must be someone I’ve never met before IRL
• Come unarmed

Only a few hours into bringing this plan into fruition, I’ve set an appointment with David Finch. We’re meeting on Thursday, and will keep you in the loop on how it goes!

(image credit: ernop)

This was a bit difficult to gauge, as there was a wide range of social media knowledge in the room. Trying to keep from oversimplifying and getting too deep was the challenge for the day. Still, it seemed that folks left knowing something they had not before, as they were receptive. Presenting in the form of storytelling some examples of strategies seemed to work well.

Thank you again AMA, I appreciated the opportunity to speak for you and had a great time and got to meet some great folks.

As promised, here’s a copy of the presentation on SlideShare. You can download it from there too if you wish.

| View | Upload your own

I’ll be presenting at the American Marketing Association tomorrow from 12:00-1:00pm, so if you’re in the Louisville area, come on by. The talk will be called “What You Always Wanted to Know About Social Media (but were afraid to ask).” As done in one of my prior presentations on Selling Social Media, I will make the presentation available via SlideShare after the event. Feel free to jump in via Twitter too.

You can sign up to the event here. Looking forward to seeing you there!